Finally, a use for QR codes: art doubles as a tech city showcase

This article was taken from the December 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.

For the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, architects Sergei Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov lined the 12m x 12m Russian Pavilion with hundreds of QR codes. "They may look ornamental, but QR codes are packed with information," says Tchoban, 50. "We decided to use this to explain Skolkovo, the new Silicon Valley of Russia."

The pair are master planners of Skolkovo -- a high-technology business area currently being built near Moscow. Their pavilion uses 35 unique codes, each of which contains information about the digital city, due for completion in 2017.

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Visitors are handed a tablet device on entering the pavilion, and can then point at the codes to extract information. "They show how the town will function, how energy will be supplied, how its transport networks will run and who will work there," says Tchoban.